Chapter 978: Entering the Dark Death Zone Again!

Unknown to Nie Yan, during the time he left the Dark Death Domain to forge his equipment, countless players had flooded into the Dark Death Domain. In the early stages, several groups of twenty players entered the domain, only to be quickly surrounded by an endless horde of undead creatures and wiped out.

Only then did they realize how terrifying the Dark Death Domain truly was, filled with monsters beyond imagination in sheer numbers.

However, many players still refused to give up. They began forming groups of a thousand players each. After more than ten such large groups entered the Dark Death Domain, they finally stabilized the situation. They cleared out a safe zone and used it as a bridgehead to grind monsters inside. The Bullman Tribe had dispatched more than thirty thousand-man groups here. With such a massive influx of players, a grand leveling event had begun.

The Dark Death Domain was a special map with two entrances—one on the Light Faction’s side and the other on the Dark Faction’s. The Death Scythe was the key to opening the gates of the Death Domain. If the Light Faction used it to open the Dark Death Domain, only players from the Light Faction could enter, and the same applied to the Dark Faction. Fortunately, Nie Yan had obtained the Death Scythe, so the entire Light Faction benefited.

The scene was filled with the sounds of players shouting to form groups. This was a familiar situation for Nie Yan. In his past life, he often paid attention to such group-up announcements, as joining these large groups offered far greater rewards than solo grinding.

Nie Yan smiled slightly and passed by the Archangel Tyrode, entering the Dark Death Domain. The Archangel was extremely busy, with nearly fifty to sixty team leaders currently accepting quests from him. Their task was to enter the domain and collect undead items to hand in to Tyrode, in exchange for generous experience and gold rewards. Accumulating enough of these could even earn some high-tier items.

Nie Yan had no interest in doing these quests. The rewards offered were practically useless to him. He didn’t plan to stay here doing quests for long. With a flicker of light and shadow, he had already entered the Dark Death Domain.

Some players saw Nie Yan arriving alone and were momentarily stunned. This guy was crazy—daring to enter the Dark Death Domain all by himself!

Seeing the puzzled looks from the surrounding players, Nie Yan roughly understood what they were thinking. He ignored them and dashed forward, leaving behind a trail of a rainbow-like blur.

A chorus of astonished exclamations rose from the players. His speed was incredible.

However, something even more shocking happened next.

The temperature around Nie Yan suddenly dropped sharply. The moisture in the air instantly turned into thin strands of ice, falling from the sky. As he dashed forward, every skeleton within a thirty-yard radius around him was instantly frozen in frost, then exploded into bursts of icy mist with loud “pops.”

Nie Yan dashed forward at an incredible speed. Countless undead creatures exploded into icy mist as soon as they approached within thirty yards of him. The scene was spectacular.

Within moments, Nie Yan had dashed thousands of yards ahead, leaving behind a trail of icy mist like a flowing ribbon, continuously stretching longer.

“What the hell kind of ice magic is that? So terrifying!”

“Incredible! If he ran through the Dark Death Domain like this, how much experience would he gain!”

Someone actually leveling like this was unimaginable to them before. Watching Nie Yan’s rapidly retreating figure, the players couldn’t help but feel envious. How fast was that leveling!

What they didn’t know was that Nie Yan’s Frost Aura wasn’t actually an ice magic skill. Although he was killing many undead creatures along the way and the grinding speed was decent, compared to the Light-Dark Holy Dragon, it was nothing. Nie Yan didn’t even consider this experience gain worth his attention.

After running for about ten minutes, Nie Yan looked back and saw that the other players had fallen far behind. Their progress in exploring the Dark Death Domain was slower than he had expected. He could now focus on dealing with the Shadow Lords without worry.

After sprinting for nearly an hour, Nie Yan finally reached the area where Shadow Lords spawned. Although it had become a wasteland, the 300-level boss had already been dealt with by the War God Kro, and its corpse had likely been respawned. Only the ruins of the once-magnificent structure remained. Still, a large number of Shadow Lords gathered here, unwilling to leave.

Nearly two hundred Shadow Lords gathered together. To ordinary players, this place was a deadly forbidden zone. But to Nie Yan, they were just white waves of experience. Killing them all should be enough to reach level 200! A single 210-level demonized lord yielded experience equivalent to millions of 180-level undead creatures!

Looking at the swarms of Shadow Lords wandering the ruins in the distance, Nie Yan paused for a moment before summoning the Light-Dark Holy Dragon. He didn’t activate his clone skill yet, hiding instead on a high hill over a thousand yards away from the Shadow Lords. He began casting his ultimate spells, planning to first use the ultimate to scatter the Shadow Lords, then lure a few with crossbow shots and eliminate them.

With that thought, Nie Yan immediately sprang into action. The Light-Dark Holy Dragon began chanting incantations, uttering words in ancient draconic language.

After a while, a huge surge of light magic elements gathered in the sky.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The light magic rained down on the ruins, turning everything into chaos.

The Shadow Lords scattered in panic.

Nie Yan dashed forward, circling around. Seizing an opportunity, he summoned the Headless Knight Doro’s Crossbow and fired a series of arrows. The arrows struck one of the Shadow Lords with a series of “thuds.” Although the Headless Knight Doro’s Crossbow wasn’t a high-level weapon with strong attack power, with Nie Yan’s own attack bonuses, the damage was still impressive, causing five hits of over ten thousand damage each.

The Shadow Lord noticed Nie Yan’s ambush and let out a furious roar, charging toward him.

Nie Yan dashed outward. His current movement speed was much faster than the Shadow Lord’s. He intentionally slowed down, letting the Shadow Lord inch closer.

Luckily, only one Shadow Lord pursued him.

After running about five or six hundred yards, Nie Yan stopped.

When the Shadow Lord approached to about thirty yards, its movement speed slowed down. A thin layer of frost quickly covered its body. Nie Yan’s Frost Aura had already applied a slowing effect!

The Shadow Lord roared furiously and swung its axe downward.

Nie Yan activated Quick Step, moving like lightning, appearing behind the Shadow Lord. He roared and struck—Spinebreaker!

Nie Yan’s dagger pierced the Shadow Lord’s back. Immediately, a burst of Frost Explosion detonated on its body, sending an astonishing damage number floating above its head.

A Frost Explosion of legendary quality was no small matter!

The Shadow Lord roared in pain, trying to strike Nie Yan with its axe. However, its movement speed had become extremely slow, like a slow-motion scene. By the time it turned around, Nie Yan had already circled behind it and detonated another Frost Explosion with a loud “pop.”

Each of Nie Yan’s attacks was accompanied by a Frost Explosion, making the damage especially terrifying. The Frost Explosion’s damage varied but was generally over ten times his normal attack power.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The chain of explosions sounded like war drums breaking—powerful, yet with a unique rhythm.

This was Nie Yan’s rhythm of attack!

At this rate, it would take about half an hour to defeat a single Shadow Lord!

That was already an incredible speed. If Dodo, Tang Yao, Cui Can Dao Guang, and others knew Nie Yan could solo a 210-level demonized lord at level 196 and finish it in half an hour, they would be shocked beyond words.

As Nie Yan was attacking this Shadow Lord, two more Shadow Lords approached from the distance, surrounding him.

Damn it, Nie Yan couldn’t help but curse in frustration. Facing three Shadow Lords at once was going to be a bit of a problem.

Thinking for a moment, Nie Yan lured the three Shadow Lords about three thousand yards further away before feeling relieved. This time, he should avoid attracting more attention.

Once the other two Shadow Lords entered Nie Yan’s vicinity, they were also affected by the Frost Aura, their speeds decreasing. Their axe-swinging speed was reduced by more than thirty percent.

Nie Yan dodged an axe swing and retaliated with a counterattack. Another Frost Explosion detonated with a loud “pop.”

To Nie Yan, the Shadow Lords’ attack and movement speeds were painfully slow. He could easily dodge their attacks. Once hit by Frost Explosion, their speed was further reduced by sixty percent on top of the initial thirty percent slowdown.

These three Shadow Lords moved like slow-motion scenes from a movie, their actions painfully sluggish. Nie Yan, on the other hand, moved like a butterfly flitting through flowers, darting between the three Shadow Lords and launching attacks. Whenever one of them’s Frost Explosion effect wore off, he immediately reapplied it.

If he had to rely solely on his own damage output, it would take forever to finish them off. Nie Yan commanded the Light-Dark Holy Dragon in the distance to use Clone and Rage, summoning his other two earth dragon pets. Seven earth dragons simultaneously launched long-range attacks, concentrating their ultimate spells on one of the Shadow Lords. The Shadow Lord’s health bar rapidly dropped as a series of damage numbers floated above its head.

The damage output was quite impressive, and Nie Yan was very satisfied.

After being attacked by the earth dragons, the Shadow Lord shifted its aggro, attempting to chase the Light-Dark Holy Dragon. However, its movement speed was extremely slow. It ran a short distance in slow motion, then “pop!”—another Frost Explosion hit. It took a few more steps, then “pop!”—another Frost Explosion.

At this rate, the Shadow Lord wouldn’t even be able to catch up with the Light-Dark Holy Dragon before it died!

About fifteen minutes later, the Shadow Lord let out a long, mournful roar and collapsed heavily to the ground. A beam of white light fell on Nie Yan. His eyes lit up—he had leveled up again! A 210-level demonized lord gave such a massive amount of experience!